EDUCATION—RELIGIOUS EMBLEMS IN NATIONAL SCHOOLS.

I beg to ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he is aware that in the national schools of the parish of Hensall, Yorkshire, which Church and dissenting children alike are obliged to attend, there is in the mixed school an altar with candles, and a crucifix suspended over it, and in the infants' school another altar with two pictures of the Annunciation and the Nativity over it, and a crucifix suspended over the fireplace; also that the children of the parish, both Church and dissenting, are taken to hear Mass every Thursday at nine o'clock, and have been taken to church to the "Blessing and Imposition of Ashes," and are taught the rosary; and, if so, whether the Education Department will interfere to put a stop to these practices, and to have the emblems removed from the national schools.

The Education Department has no information on the subjects referred to in the question, and has no power to direct the removal of emblems or to interfere with the religious teaching in the school so long as the Conscience Clause is observed.